Ansible AWX is a free and open source Ansible Management tool created to provide System Administrators and Developers with an easy to use, intuitive and powerful web-based user interface for managing Ansible playbooks, Secrets, inventories, and Automation cron jobs scheduled to run at certain intervals. This guide explains how to install Ansible AWX on Debian 10 (Buster) Linux system.
Step 1: Install Ansible on Debian
Update your APT index.
sudo apt updateAdd Ansible APT repository.
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ansible/ansible/ubuntu bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ansible.list
sudo apt -y install gnupg2
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 93C4A3FD7BB9C367Install the latest release of Ansible using the commands below.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ansibleConfirm installation by checking the version available.
$ ansible --version ansible 2.8.6 config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg configured module search path = [u'/home/debian/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules'] ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ansible executable location = /usr/bin/ansible python version = 2.7.16 (default, Apr 6 2019, 01:42:57) [GCC 8.3.0]
Step 2: Install Docker and Docker Compose
All Ansible AWX services run in Docker containers. For this to happen, you need to install Docker engine.
Confirm Docker version installation with the following command.
~$ docker info
Client:
Debug Mode: false
Server:
Containers: 0
Running: 0
Paused: 0
Stopped: 0
Images: 0
Server Version: 19.03.4
Storage Driver: overlay2
Backing Filesystem: extfs
Supports d_type: true
Native Overlay Diff: true
Logging Driver: json-file
Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
Plugins:
Volume: local
Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local logentries splunk syslog
Swarm: inactive
Runtimes: runc
Default Runtime: runc
Init Binary: docker-init
containerd version: b34a5c8af56e510852c35414db4c1f4fa6172339
runc version: 3e425f80a8c931f88e6d94a8c831b9d5aa481657
init version: fec3683
Security Options:
apparmor
seccomp
Profile: default
Kernel Version: 4.19.0-5-cloud-amd64
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
OSType: linux
Architecture: x86_64
CPUs: 2
Total Memory: 3.857GiB
Name: deb10
ID: PYX7:PPC7:DWI3:O4QD:H524:5HCS:VYJK:T7Y2:GP32:J6OF:AOWZ:XQKW
Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
Debug Mode: false
Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/
Labels:
Experimental: false
Insecure Registries:
127.0.0.0/8
Live Restore Enabled: falseInstall Docker Compose:
How To Install Latest Docker Compose on Linux
Docker Compose details.
$ docker-compose version docker-compose version 1.24.1, build 4667896b docker-py version: 3.7.3 CPython version: 3.6.8 OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.1.0j 20 Nov 2018
Step 3: Install Node.js and NPM on Debian
Install Node.js and NPM packages using apt command.
sudo apt install -y nodejs npm
sudo npm install npm --globalStep 4: Install Ansible AWX on Debian 10 (Buster)
Before we install Ansible AWX on Debian 10 (Buster), install few required Ansible packages and modules.
sudo apt -y install python3-pip git pwgen vim python3-docker
sudo pip3 install requests==2.14.2Update default Python version.
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python2.7 1
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3 2Install docker-compose Python module matching your Docker Compose version.
$ docker-compose version docker-compose version 1.24.1, build 4667896 docker-py version: 3.7.3 CPython version: 3.6.8 OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.1.0j 20 Nov 2018 $ sudo pip3 install docker-compose==1.24.1
Clone AWX source code from GitHub using the git command.
sudo su -
git clone --depth 50 https://github.com/ansible/awx.gitChange to the AWX installer directory
Since you need to execute ansible playbooks under installer directory, first navigate to this directory.
cd awx/installer/
Check the inventory file in the awx directory, you can customize as you want:
$ nano inventory
Generate AWX secret key
$ pwgen -N 1 -s 30 2fCkx2K5GnIjBz4OterhOC3ey0WPdj
Modify inventory file with correct settings for your setup. Minimal settings:
dockerhub_base=ansible awx_task_hostname=awx awx_web_hostname=awxweb postgres_data_dir=/tmp/pgdocker host_port=80 host_port_ssl=443 docker_compose_dir=/tmp/awxcompose pg_username=awx pg_password=awxpass pg_database=awx pg_port=5432 rabbitmq_password=awxpass rabbitmq_erlang_cookie=cookiemonster admin_user=admin admin_password=StrongAdminpassword create_preload_data=True secret_key=2fCkx2K5GnIjBz4OterhOC3ey0WPdj
Execute playbook
Install Ansible AWX on Debian 10 using Ansible- The playbook name is install.yml.
ansible-playbook -i inventory install.yml
Installation output, check if you got any error messages.
Use the docker ps command to get a list of running containers.
Step 5: Access Ansible AWX Dashboard
The web portal is accessible via hostip_or_hostname. You will get a welcome dashboard similar to one below.
Login with admin user account password set in the inventory file. Once you authenticate, you’ll get to AWX administration dashboard.
Step 6: Updating Ansible AWX on Debian 10
To make updates, change your working Directory to AWX home.
cd ~/.awx/awxcompose/Stop Docker services.
# docker-compose stop Stopping awx_task ... done Stopping awx_web ... done Stopping awx_rabbitmq ... done Stopping awx_postgres ... done Stopping awx_memcached ... done
Re-pull Docker images.
# docker-compose pull Pulling rabbitmq ... done Pulling memcached ... done Pulling postgres ... done Pulling web ... done Pulling task ... done
Start AWX docker services.
# docker-compose up --force-recreate -d Recreating awx_postgres ... done Recreating awx_rabbitmq ... done Recreating awx_memcached ... done Recreating awx_web ... done Recreating awx_task ... done
Related guides.
How To Install and Configure Ansible Tower on CentOS 7
Install Ansible AWX on CentOS 7 / Fedora
Semaphore – Manage Ansible Tasks from A Web UI
